# Hoylake Lifeboat Station

Hoylake Lifeboat Station is located on the North Parade promenade in the town of Hoylake, on the Wirral Peninsula, in Merseyside.
A lifeboat was first stationed at Hoylake by the Liverpool Dock Trustees in 1803. The station was transferred to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) in 1894.
The station currently operates a Shannon-class All-weather lifeboat, and a Griffon Type 470TD Hovercraft.

## History

On 16 September 1803, the Liverpool Dock Trustees ordered that a lifeboat, purchased from Henry Greathead in 1802, be placed in service at Hoylake, one of 6 lifeboat stations in the area provided by the Dock Trustees. The boat was to be housed in a newly constructed wooden boathouse, under the supervision of the local Tide Surveyor, Mr. Marlowe. The first Master (coxswain) was Thomas Seed, Lower Lighthouse Keeper. Thomas Seed died in 1808, and the Dock Trustees appointed Capt. Joseph Bennett, already an experienced Liverpool pilot, as Master of Hoylake lifeboat, and Keeper of the Lower Lighthouse, on a salary of 40 guineas.
Following an wreck of the Athebaska in 1838, when none of the boats from Hoylake, Point of Air or Magazine village were able to effect a rescue, with the loss of all aboard, the Dock Trustees decided to place a No.2 boat at Hoylake in 1840, specially constructed by local boatbuilder Thomas Costain to suit the local conditions. So pleased were the crew with the new boat, they requested another one, to replace their No.1 boat, which arrived in 1841.
By 1847, launching of either Hoylake boat was proving difficult at certain times due to silting. So it was decided to create a station on Hilbre Island. A stone built boathouse and slipway were constructed, a caretaker was appointed to live on the island, and in 1848, the Hoylake No.2 boat was transferred to Hilbre Island.
Liverpool Dock Trustees handed over control of all their lifeboat stations to the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board in 1858. However, by the 1890s, with an ever increasing work load due to rising levels of port traffic at Liverpool, negotiations took place between the two parties, and on 1 July 1894, all the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board lifeboat stations were handed over to the RNLI. The Hoylake boat was only two years old, so after being sent away for some modification work, the boat was returned to Hoylake and was named Coard William Squarey (ON 377).
In 1898, the RNLI gave up their existing wooden boat house and site, to allow Hoylake Council to create an Esplanade. A new site was provided by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board, and the council paid £200 towards the construction of a new lifeboat station, which cost £922, and was completed in 1899. The council also constructed a new slipway opposite the new boathouse at no cost to the RNLI.
Hoylake was one of the first stations to trial a launch tractor, receiving a Clayton tractor T1 in 1921. They also got a new lifeboat in 1931. She was the first of the new motor-powered Liverpool-class lifeboats, with a single 35 h.p. engine, capable of 7.3kts.
The first of thirteen Fowler Challenger III amphibious tractors was introduced at Hoylake in 1953.
With motor lifeboats at Hoylake and New Brighton, and one due at Rhyl, it was considered that there was enough lifeboat coverage for the area, and it was announced that Hilbre Island station would close in 1938.
Nearly 110 years since the building of Hoylake's 1899 lifeboat station, at a cost of £922, a new station was constructed on the site of Hoylake's old open air baths, located about half a mile to the east of the old station, on the sea-side of North Parade. It followed two years of fundraising, and cost £2 million to construct.

## Station honours

The following are awards made at Hoylake
* RNIPLS Silver Medal
       George Davies, Coxswain - 1851
* RNLI Silver Medal
       Thomas Dodd, Coxswain - 1902
* Silver Medal awarded by the Dutch Government
       George Davies, Coxswain - 1864
* RNLI Bronze Medal
       Herbert Jones, Coxswain - 1943
       Benjamin Stanton Armitage, boatman - 1943
       William G. Widdup, late Coxswain, H.M. Coastguard - 1943
       Harold Triggs, Coxswain - 1971
       Thomas Henry Jones, Coxswain - 1980
* Medal Service Certificate
       Peter Jones, Acting Motor Mechanic - 1980
       Alan Tolley, Acting Assistant Mechanic - 1980
       Geoffrey Ormrod, crew member - 1980
       Gordon Bird, crew member - 1980
* First Class Certificates of Merit awarded by The Imperial Russian Association for Life-saving on Waters
       Hoylake Lifeboat Crew - 1902
* The Thanks of the Institution inscribed on Vellum
       Capt. Joshua Armitage - 1896
       John McDermott, Second Coxswain - 1980
       David Dodd, crew member - 1980
* A Framed Letter of Thanks signed by the Chairman of the Institution
       Jeffery Kernigan, Acting Tractor Driver - 1980
       Jesse Bird, Acting Assistant Tractor Driver - 1980
* Member, Order of the British Empire (MBE)
       David Arthur Dodd, Coxswain - 1998
* British Empire Medal
       David Anthony Whiteley, Coxswain - 2016

## Hoylake and Hilbre lifeboats
### Liverpool Dock Trustee lifeboats
#### Hoylake

| Name | In service | Class | Comments |
| Unnamed | 1803−1925 | Greathead | |
| Unnamed | 1826−1841 | 30-foot Non-self-righting | |
| Unnamed (Hoylake No.2) | 1840−1848 | 30-foot Non-self-righting (P&S) | Moved to Hilbre Island, 1848 |
| Unnamed | 1841−1862 | 30-foot Non-self-righting (P&S) | |
| Unnamed | 1862−1892 | 34-foot Non-self-righting (P&S) | |
| Unnamed | 1892−1894 | 34-foot Non-self-righting (P&S) | [Note 5] [Note 6] |

#### Hilbre Island

| Name | In service | Class | Comments |
| Unnamed (Hoylake No.2) | 1848−1864 | 30-foot Non-self-righting (P&S) | |
| Unnamed | 1864−1890 1891−1895 | 33-foot 6in Non-self-righting (P&S) | [Note 8] [Note 9] |

### RNLI lifeboats
#### Hilbre Island

| ON | Name | In service | Class |
| 383 | Admiral Briggs | 1895−1914 | Liverpool P&S |
| 413 | James Stevens No.2 | 1914−1924 | Liverpool P&S |
| 461 | Chapman | 1924−1938 | Liverpool P&S |
    Station Closed, 1938

#### Hoylake

| ON | Op.No. | Name | In service | Class | Comments |
| 377 | − | Unnamed, Coard William Squarey | 1894−1906 | 34-foot Non-self-righting (P&S) | [Note 11] [Note 12] |
| 555 | − | Hannah Fawsett Bennett | 1906−1931 | Liverpool P&S | |
| 750 | − | Oldham | 1931−1952 | Liverpool | |
| 894 | − | Oldham IV | 1952−1970 | Liverpool | |
| 862 | − | Thomas Corbett | 1970−1974 | Liverpool | |
| 1000 | 37-29 | Mary Gabriel | 1974−1990 | Rother | |
| 1163 | 12-005 | Lady of Hilbre | 1990−2014 | Mersey | |
| 1313 | 13-06 | Edmund Hawthorne Micklewood | 2014− | Shannon | |
| − | H-005 | Hurley Spirit | 2016− | Hovercraft | |

### Launch and recovery tractors

| Op.No. | Reg. No. | Type | In service |
| T1 | TC 648 | Clayton | 1921 |
| T3 | MA 6793 | Clayton | 1921–1928 |
| T23 | PP 7515 | FWD Co. | 1928–1929 |
| T24 | UW 2641 | FWD Co. | 1929–1949 |
| T45 | KGJ 58 | Case LA | 1949–1953 |
| T56 | MYR 426 | Fowler Challenger III | 1953–1960 |
| T67 | YLD 792 | Fowler Challenger III | 1960–1969 |
| T61 | PLA 561 | Fowler Challenger III | 1969–1975 |
| T63 | PFX 163 | Fowler Challenger III | 1975–1978 |
| T68 | YUV 742 | Fowler Challenger III | 1978–1982 |
| T56 | MYR 426 | Fowler Challenger III | 1982–1983 |
| T91 | UAW 558Y | Talus MB-H Crawler | 1983–1986 |
| T94 | B567 FAW | Talus MB-H Crawler | 1986–1997 |
| T92 | A462 AUX | Talus MB-H Crawler | 1997–2007 |
| T99 | C82 NUX | Talus MB-H Crawler | 2007–2014 |
| SC-T06 Roland Hough | HF14 HLK | SLARS (Supacat) | 2014– |
* 1 2 ON is the RNLI's Official Number of the boat.
* 1 2 Op.No. is the RNLI's Operational Number carried on the hull or vehicle.